1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to baby toys and more particularly to a toy with a plurality of suckable bottle or pacifier nipples.
2. General Background
Pacifiers have been designed for infants as a substitute for bottle nipples for many years. Such apparatus take many shapes, but most utilize the basic, commonly used, mouth shield and nipple arrangement; however, some provide a handle portion which is generally integral with the pacifier, while some provide a ring handle as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,336. Although it is desirable for a pacifier to have a handle so that the child or an adult can hold the pacifier, care must be taken so that the handle does not become a danger to the child.
Plural nipple pacifiers have been designed, such as that disclosed in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 279,218 which provides a variety of odd shaped nipples clustered around a central core and further having a pair of rings made of a dissimilar material which may be dislodged or removed. By necessity, this pacifier would be made in one piece and of solid construction and, therefore, quite heavy. This pacifier is unattractive and cumbersome, offers no explanation of its construction material, which could be tough or hard, and provides no restraint with regard as to how much of the nipple can be placed in the child's mouth, thereby possibly causing suffocation. Further, this configuration could cause harm to a child's eye due to the angle of the protrusions and there is no way for the child to grasp and position the pacifier.
Due to the child's lack of coordination, it is often difficult for the child to manipulate the pacifier by the handle portion, where one exists, and thereby place the nipple portion in its mouth. The mouth shields of most safe pacifiers are generally made of hard plastic, rubber or urethane and are, therefore, potentially hazardous should the child fall. However, such shields are considered necessary to prevent suffocation. The hard plastic shields are certainly uncomfortable if the child should fall asleep on the pacifier. Therefore, in my previous U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,128 I disclosed a hollow, one piece, pliable pacifier having two ball portions connected by an integral handle or grasping portion, each ball portion having multiple nipples, thereby presenting an array of nipples to the child's mouth without manipulation. It is now realized that an improvement is needed which allows the nipples to be separately constructed from a more resilient material having multiple colors and further provide a manufacturing design having the ability to transform the toy from one embodiment to another.